Prints with Green Leaves

Once again Skapligt enkelt had a great idea for crafts, which we had to try while there are still green leaves around. First we went for a leaf picking walk with kids and buckets. This was already quite fun, but as it is natural to talk about the plants too, one could even find an educational angle to this. We came back with a variety, even some flowers (as the one on top of the picture).

After the walk we took a plank, put some paper on it, arranged the plants on the paper, put paper towels on top of the leaves and flowers, and then hammered away. You need to hit pretty hard, all over the plant and quite a few times to get the print on the paper. My toddlers were not able to hit hard enough, so we collaborated but a couple of years older kids would be strong enough to do it themselves. The younger one also had a hard time to understand not to move the plants before we were done hitting – maybe not the best time to try something new out on a Saturday evening either.

There was not enough concentration left to do a lot but I think the idea is great. Using ferns (on the left) and decorations it would be easy to do e.g. Christmas trees and the heart shaped leaf would be great for cards as well. We’ll see what our prints (and the rest of the leaves) turn into tomorrow!

This was not the first version… But this shows some potential in the technique, so now I am already wondering whether the green would stick on canvas too? I may have to wait till next spring to have time to try it though 🙂